Mumbai: Wanindu Hasaranga took four wickets as Kolkata Knight Riders crumbled to 128 all out against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the sixth match of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday.
Everything went right for Bangalore, from winning the toss to skittling Kolkata for a paltry total.
Kolkata’s batting order were the masters of their own downfall. In a quest to hit hard against anything coming their way, they fell while attempting to play extravagant strokes instead of adjusting to the match situation. Apart from Hasaranga, Akash Deep took three while Harshal Patel scalped two wickets.
Bangalore’s seamers found the perfect length on a tacky pitch: just short of a good length with extra bounce coming to the fore. Kolkata were dealt with an early blow in the fourth over as Venkatesh Iyer tried to nudge a short of length delivery from Deep to the leg-side, only for the top-edge to be pouched by the bowler running to his left.
In the next over, Ajinkya Rahane mistimed the pull on a short ball from Mohammed Siraj straight to deep square leg. Deep’s pacy short ball, with some away nip, claimed Nitish Rana as a miscued heave over leg-side was snapped by David Willey running back from backward square leg and making a slide to complete the catch in the final over of power-play.
Post power-play, Bangalore pushed Kolkata into further trouble as Shreyas Iyer holed out to long-on off Hasaranga. Sunil Narine produced some fireworks by smacking Deep for a four over mid-off and six over keeper’s head.
But an ugly hoick to a straight ball saw Narine miscue to backward point off Hasaranga in the ninth over. On the very next ball, Hasaranga castled Sheldon Jackson with a beautiful googly. Andre Russell, though, had other plans. He began by slog-sweeping Hasaranga over deep mid-wicket.
Patel struck on the fourth ball of his night, forcing Sam Billings to hit his slower short of length ball straight to long-on. Russell then punished an erring Shahbaz Ahmed with sixes over deep mid-wicket and long-off.
But Patel frustrated Russell with four dot balls and on the fifth ball, the pacer had his man as the big-hitting right-hander tried to hit a short ball outside off-stump through off-side, but got an edge behind to keeper.
Hasaranga scalped his fourth wicket as Tim Southee holed out to log-on. Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy got a couple of boundaries to take Kolkata past 120. Yadav smacked Deep for a six and four before the pacer ended the 27-run stand off 26 balls by uprooting his leg-stump with a yorker.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 128 all out in 18.5 overs (Andre Russell 25, Umesh Yadav 18; Wanindu Hasaranga 4/20, Akash Deep 3/45) against Royal Challengers Bangalore
(IANS)
